Isis loyalists beheaded four men, two women and a child in Zabul.

Militants loyal to the Islamic State beheaded seven Hazara Muslims in Afghanistan's Zabul region, including two women and a child, and were in turn executed by their Taliban rivals.

Afghan officials had revealed that seven people had been beheaded by Isis militants after they had been kidnapped from Afghansitan's Ghazni province. The decapitated bodies of the victims, which included four men, two women and a child, were found in Zabul on Sunday.

In retaliation, Taliban fighters detained several Isis militants in Zabul, and executed 15 of them for the beheadings, according to Pajhwok Afghan news.

Isis had beheaded the seven civilians using a metal wire to cut their throats, according to The New York Times.

Afghan President President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani had condemned the Isis beheadings and reportedly held an 'extraordinary security meeting' to 'to seek ways for tracking down and punishing the perpetrators of this atrocious crime'.

The Taliban and Isis have been engaged in a turf war in Afghanistan, primarily a stronghold of the former.

Clashes between the two groups have resulted in several deaths and the two sides have also seen defection of members to the other side.